His Wicked Heart

Chapter Thirty-Eight

redamency
(n.) the act of loving the one who loves you; a love returned in full

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PRESENT

GENEVIEVE

Three days.

For three days, I waited.

I waited for this day to come.

My inability to verbalize my emotions had always been my biggest enemy. However, I wouldn't let it control me anymore. I'd try, at least.

Never trying even once had led me nowhere. It had only left me with a confused heart and many uncertain emotions that were gradually making me numb by not being able to express them.

Aleksandr stood only a few feet away from me, his own feelings wavering in his eyes.

"I love you," I confessed, letting my heart speak for me, breaking the chains of the thousands of emotions I had held captive before today.

Then I waited, with patience, with hope for his response.

"You love me," he repeated. I didn't know if it was his ears he didn't believe or my words, but whatever it was, it was never unpleasant.

Then, in the blink of a second, Aleksandr was in front of me, his tensed demeanor disappearing behind a rather satisfied one. His expression was as passionate as mine. So endless. So vivid.

"Yes," I nodded my head slowly, "Yes, I do."

Then it was him who pulled me into his embrace after drawing near, his consoling embrace. "God, woman," he whispered and then pulled back, only to kiss me so deeply that it stole my breath away. Heat rushed through my body, and I yearned for more, and more, and more. "Ya tebya lyublyu. Nastol'ko, chto eto prichinyayet bol'."

I love you. So much that it hurts.

He whispered between the kiss, sending delicious waves of intensity coursing through me once again. A strange haze blurred my vision when we pulled back, but I quickly blinked it away, smiling happily up at the man who looked down at me with a gaze akin to mine.

"I missed you," he said, bringing his mouth close to mine again, as if he couldn't get enough.

God, I couldn't get enough either.

"I missed you too," I wouldn't deny that the past three days had been just as much torturous for me.

We stared at each other again, only with silence between us.

We were two souls emptied of words, but the words we had for each other were never empty.

"Never leave me again, dorogaya," his palm stroked my cheek, nearly bringing me to close my eyes in pleasant delight.

All the anonymous emotions I'd felt for this man took me more than a year to realize truly.

We fell in love at first sight. But we couldn't name that emotion first. Because we hadn't felt it before.

"Never," I smiled, promising him the everlasting truth.

He smiled in return as well. Then he led us inside his house, the enormous lavish mansion I'd visited more than a year ago.

Inside, I was met with a person I least expected to encounter. Emi stared down at me with that mischievous smile plastered over his face, pretending as if he hadn't almost gotten into a fight with his brother only three days ago. And, to be precise, the reason had been me.

Guilt crept up inside me once again. I wouldn't want the brothers to ever fight because of me. And I'd never let myself become a source of contention between them.

"I'm sorry," Emi suddenly exclaimed, making me both amused and shocked at the same time. Just when I was about to respond with a smirk, he continued, as if anticipating my sarcastic reaction. "Don't get me wrong. I'm not feeling guilty or anything. It was Ale who told me to apologize, so I did."

Typical Emi, who did everything half-heartedly.

But there was one thing I knew for sure, this man wouldn't apologize to me just because his brother said so.

Then again, a part of me knew that there was nothing to feel guilty about. Fair is fair.

"I'll let you know my response after asking Ale if he wants me to forgive you or not." I smiled slightly, and he laughed at the words. Then he made his way towards me. "Welcome to the family," he said, patting my head after uttering the words, leaving me confused again.

I'd have seen the flicker of genuineness in his gaze had I even blinked once. And it just made me feel a lot more happy.

Emi made no attempt to dispel my confusion as he moved away, seemingly deciding to leave the house.

"You don't live here?" I asked, deciding to forget my confusion for now. Having heard this, Emi made a sound of disgust. "Huh, only people like you and my brother would survive in this sad house."

Okay...?

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Emi's place was a circus tent itself. But anyway, telling it to him would only burst his ego bubble.

The man's ego was more powerful than a nuclear bomb itself.

"You can go home now and give that mouth some rest. Yeah, Emi?" Aleksandr finally said, smiling at the other man. But only God knew how fake that smile was.

"Was gonna do it anyway," Emi mused before making his way out, leaving the two of us in our tranquility again.

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"What took you so long?" Aleksandr asked after settling us down on his bed, his gaze never leaving mine for a moment. "Took me long on what?"

"Realizing that you love me."

I became momentarily silent at the words. Surprised because it was sudden, and grateful because he asked. I tucked the strands of my hair behind my ear, getting prepared to say whatever I wanted.

"Men like you don't stay with one woman for long. You don't have loyal hearts," I gulped down, feeling oddly embarrassed to express the words. "That's what I kept believing until I realized... maybe all I had to do was give us a chance."

I turned to look at him to see his reaction, which remained neutral. So I continued, "Don't get me wrong. It's not like I never trusted you. It's just... I've never trusted myself to love you and then have you only for me. Because I always believed that no matter what, I wouldn't be able to hold on to you. But I was wrong."

It was the first time I could express my emotions so openly to someone, to Aleksandr. And I'd never felt more relieved.

"Now that I think about it," I sighed. "I could ask you the same question."

It was only fair if we knew about this matter from each other's perspectives. Never hiding anything, not anymore.

"It never took me too long, dorogaya. I'd already decided a year ago that I'd keep you," He replied, chuckling when he found me perplexed hearing the words. "Even if you never returned, I'd have somehow managed to bring you back. And I just knew that I'd have done it, no matter what."

My heart took a huge leap hearing those words. I couldn't find something to say in response. So I only stared at him, stared until our silence enveloped us in its warm embrace.

In the quiet of that moment, our eyes locked, and the world around us faded away. With gentle touches and a shared, unspoken longing, our hearts danced to a melody only we could hear. Aleksandr's gentle lips touched mine, and our emotions entangled.

And right there, we found a love as deep and boundless as the universe itself.

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